For Yankees, trying to avoid injuries through offseason preparation a big topic

TAMPA, Fla. — Gerrit Cole didn’t explicitly take any of his teammates to task. He spoke more in general terms when it comes to the injury bug that seems to hit the Yankees season after season.

Last year in particular.

It wasn’t the sole cause of the club going 82-80 and missing the playoffs, but it was an obvious factor.

“Certainly, there were injuries that are outside of the normal realm of injuries that impacted us,” Cole said Thursday after his workout at Steinbrenner Field, which included the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner throwing a 20-pitch bullpen session. “With that said, we get injured too much as a group. We need to improve.”

Fluke injuries do occur. Aaron Judge missed 42 games from June 4-July 28 because of the right big toe sprain he suffered at Dodger Stadium after crashing through the bullpen fence in rightfield, and that would be part of the “outside of the normal realm” to which Cole was referring.

So where can the improvement take place?

“I think that by and large, you need to prepare in the offseason well,” said Cole, renowned not only for his in-season work but for his preparation during the offseason. “This isn’t how it used to be. Even 10 years ago or so when I started, guys would come into spring training and use spring training as a ramp-up. There’s just a higher level of intensity much sooner, and so that forces the player to build the tank up, to build a capacity and the tolerance up in the offseason. That’s got to be your No. 1 goal . . . From a personal standpoint, I can’t speak [for] the other players, but it’s a focus of mine to be able to get out there for as many games as possible, and there’s always little areas where you can be improved.”

Cole, 33 — who has been one of MLB's most durable pitchers throughout his 11 years in the big leagues and who led the majors in innings in 2023 with 209 — said the collective nightmare that was the 2023 season spurred that kind of focus team-wide, at least anecdotally.

“I feel that there’s probably been a little bit of an added focus, especially from just some of the conversations I’ve had around here, that’s been an area of attention for a lot of our players,” Cole said.

Cole said that was something manager Aaron Boone touched on during his clubhouse talk on Thursday before pitchers and catchers took the field for their first workout of spring training.

“I think it’s the whole industry that’s trying to crack that code of keeping guys healthy, and we’re heavily invested in that,” Boone said. “But again, it starts with guys setting themselves up to be successful in the winter, and I do feel like we have a better handle on where guys are physically probably more so than in any other year. And that’s a credit to them.”

Speaking later in the day, general manager Brian Cashman said one of the challenges of a given offseason is keeping tabs on players, all of whom have their own routines and often work with personal trainers. Cashman said players, perhaps spurred on by last season’s disappointment, were better at staying in touch with the organization’s training staff on the ins and outs of their work during the offseason.

“Our personnel did a great job and the players were very receptive to that, more so this winter than maybe last winter, and I think it’s paid some dividends the way it looks so far,” Cashman said. “I think ultimately our players, as well as our front office and our coaching staff, we all have a bad taste in the mouth from last year. Understandably so. Eighty-two wins was far short of anybody’s expectations, so because of that, I think everybody’s internal motor was set in the right direction.”